Legit Reviews News History

Buy.com announces "Cyber Monday" traffic up 54%

Buy.com recorded its busiest day of the year so far on "Cyber Monday" - the Monday after Thanksgiving. Officials site discounts and deals from Buy.com partners leading to increased online traffic.

Popular items included a Bluetooth headset, TV DVD box sets, Xbox 360/PS3/Wii video games, the Slingbox AV, Fantom Drives Titanium II 250GB Hard Drive, a Kingston 2GB SD Card and ViewSonic 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 01:52 PM

AMD Demonstrates quad-core Barcelona server processors!

AMD today demonstrated the industry?s first native quad-core x86 server processor, achieving four x86 processing cores on a single die of silicon. At the annual AMD Industry Analyst Forum, a server powered by four upcoming Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors (codenamed Barcelona), manufactured on 65nm silicon-on-insulator process technology, was shown utilizing all 16 cores. By delivering a consistent thermal envelope while adding two more processing cores, along with micro-architectural enhancements, AMD expects to significantly advance the performance-per-watt capabilities of AMD Opteron processors.

?AMD is guided by an overarching strategy to reduce datacenter complexity and to deliver performance increases without forcing customers to endure disruptive platform transitions,? said Randy Allen, corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Division, AMD. ?We discussed quad-core requirements with our customers and their end users, and determined that, as we did with the introduction of dual-core x86 processors in 2005, only a native quad-core x86 server processor would excel in the broad set of dimensions that matter to our customers. With the introduction of native quad-core x86 processors in the second quarter of 2007, AMD plans to again deliver exceptional technology based on the same customer-centric design principles that steered the development of our award-winning AMD dual-core server, workstation, desktop and mobile processors.?

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 12:23 PM

Microsoft Finally Rolls Out Windows Vista

After years of delays, Microsoft has launched new versions of its two most important products -- Windows and Office. At a press conference Thursday at Nasdaq's Times Square headquarters, CEO Steve Ballmer nodded to the years of frustrations saying, "It's exciting to finally be here." Ballmer confidently predicted that "more than 200 million people will be using at least one of these products by the end of 2007."

Microsoft released the business versions of Office and Vista, as the new version of Windows is called. Consumer versions of Vista and Office will go on sale at the end of January. The giant software maker also launched new server versions of two related products, Exchange, for email, and SharePoint, for collaborative projects, and has more than two dozen new or upgraded applications slated for release in the next year or so as part of Microsoft's largest-ever wave of new products. Microsoft and the PC industry, which has seen sales growth slow, are counting on the new products to increase sales.

The Street

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 10:14 AM

US plans "iPod sanctions" against North Korea

As part of the US sanctions against North Korea in response to their nuclear tests, the US has banned the export of luxury goods to that country. Looks like Kim jong-il and his supporters wont be getting that iPod (or plasma, Rolex, etc.) for Christmas this year.

Apparently the CIA has been doing its homework and discovered that the glorious people's leader Kim is a bit of technology freak. When he is not building atom bombs he likes gadgets like iPods, plasma televisions and Segway electric scooters.

The Inquirer

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 08:04 AM

Study: 1 in 5 parents think kids online too much

One in five American parents believe their kids are spending too much time on the Internet, though most say the online activities haven't affected grades either way.

In a study to be released Wednesday by the University of Southern California, 21 percent of adult Internet users with children believe the kids are online too long, compared with 11 percent in 2000. Still, that's less than the 49 percent who complain their kids watch too much TV. About 80 percent of the children say the Internet is important for schoolwork, although three-quarters of the parents say grades haven't gone up or down since they got Internet access.

MSNBC Technology News

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 06:58 AM

Nvidia takes $127M options charge - better than expected

Graphics chip maker Nvidia found some irregularities in past stock-based compensation practices during an internal probe, and took a total of $127 million in non-cash charges over associated expenses, the company said Wednesday. The figure fell within the $150 million charge Nvidia said it might have to take, which is good news.

The company also amended financial results for its fiscal year 2006 and the first two quarters of 2007 as a result of the internal probe. The non-cash charge and amendments to previous financial statements ends its internal probe, but an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) remains ongoing, Nvidia said. The restated earnings reports did not have a material impact on Nvidia's operating results, it said. The company plans to cooperate fully with the SEC.

InfoWorld

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 06:57 AM

GM pledges to make plug-in electric vehicle

General Motors on Wednesday became the first automaker to commit to make a rechargeable hybrid vehicle, a move intended to distance the world's largest automaker from its reputation for producing gas-guzzling trucks. I like raw horse power, so I guess I'm screwed since GM's top priority is a plug-in hybrid car.

Environmental activists have long lobbied GM and other leading automakers to develop such vehicles, which could be readily recharged when not in use, as a way to reduce oil consumption and auto emissions. GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, speaking at the opening of the Los Angeles Auto Show, called development of the plug-in hybrid technology a "top priority" for the automaker.

CNET News

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 06:56 AM

Intel expects 45-65nm crossover to be reached in 2008

After the planned launch of 45nm processors in the second half of 2007, Intel will likely reach the crossover between 45nm and 65nm nodes in CPU production in 2008, said Rob Willoner, technology analyst at Intel's technology and manufacturing group. He confirmed the chip giant has already started transitioning to 45nm technology at its D1D fab in Oregon. The Oregon fab will be the company's first to start volume production of 45nm processors, he added.

According to Willoner, Intel usually reaches a crossover in CPU production between two latest process nodes once every two years. He said that the company reached the crossover between 65nm and 90nm nodes earlier this year. Codenamed Penryn, Intel's first 45nm dual-core design project has already entered a phase of debugging in silicon, when the company manufactures samples for internal use. Penryn will come out in server, desktop and mobile versions, featuring new power management modes and 48 new SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) instructions, called SSE4, specific to multimedia and high-performance computing applications, according to Intel. Compared to the company's current dual-core CPUs based on the Intel Core microarchitecture, it will also have higher core speeds and larger caches.

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 06:55 AM

AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 Series Articles and Reviews

If you are interested in reading about the AMD Quad FX Platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) Architecture here are a list of reviews and article to hold you over for a bit!

AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 Series @ [H]ard|OCP
AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 Series @ HotHardware
AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 Series @ Legit Reviews
AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 Series @ PCPerspective
AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 Series @ Xbit Labs

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 06:42 AM

AMD Launches Quad FX Platforms with Dual CPU Sockets

Charting another industry first for computing enthusiasts, AMD today announced the AMD Quad FX Platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) Architecture, the first dual-socket, multi-core desktop PC platform designed to take advantage of the latest enhancements in Windows Vista Ultimate. As the supreme AMD platform for megatasking enthusiasts, the AMD Quad FX Platform is designed to redefine performance on the latest generation of multi-threaded applications.

The AMD Quad FX Platform is powered by pairs of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series dual-core processors, the newest additions to the award-winning AMD Athlon 64 FX processor family. The new platform takes enthusiasts on a megatasking thrill ride, allowing them to make the most of their overall computing experience while gaming, editing audio/video and streaming high-definition content. As consumers look forward to enhanced PC experiences made possible by Microsoft Windows Vista, and the software industry moves to a multi-threading environment, the AMD Quad FX Platform is poised to meet the needs of enthusiasts who "megatask" - running multiple, demanding applications and multi-threaded games.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, Nov 30, 2006 - 05:59 AM

BitTorrent Strikes Deals with TV and Movie Companies

BitTorrent is back in the news today - but this time in a good way. They announced a major deal with 20th Century Fox, MTV, Paramount and others media giants to offer digital downloads of their movies and TV shows on BitTorrent.com. This comes on the heals of a previously announced partnership with Waner Brothers.

BitTorrent, Inc., home to the world's leading peer-assisted digital content delivery platform, today announced a slate of partnerships with a wide variety of leading film and television companies. 20th Century Fox, G4, Kadokawa Pictures USA, Lionsgate, MTV Networks (including COMEDY CENTRAL, Logo, MTV: Music Television, MTV2, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons Network, SpikeTV, The N, TV Land and VH1), Palm Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Starz Media will publish movies and TV shows on BitTorrent.com.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Wed, Nov 29, 2006 - 08:00 AM

Intel Samples 45nm Penryn Processors

Intel Corp. has announced that it is making prototypes of computer processors using new manufacturing techniques that further shrink circuitry, making the chips run faster and use less power. Penryn is rumored to be a dual-core, 45nm shrink of the Merom processor that is common in new laptops powered by Intel.

The sample processors, known as the Penryn family within Intel, are being made at a factory in Oregon, and the company is on track to begin selling the chips in the second half of 2007, said Mark Bohr, director of process architecture and integration at Intel. "We are processing the first samples of the Penryn design. These samples will go back to the design team to determine if design is working as expected," Bohr told Reuters in an interview.

Reuters Technology News

Posted by | Wed, Nov 29, 2006 - 07:00 AM

Kingston eMusic Promo: 50 Free Downloads via Kingston Mobile Phone Village

Kingston has been busy putting together a new promo with eMusic for the Kingston Mobile Phone Village portal (www.kingston.com/mpv) that offers visitors 50 free downloads when they sign up for a free trial with eMusic, the leading supplier of indie titles. Starting today through January, the Kingston eMusic promo aims to introduce mobile consumers to a library of nearly 2 million songs, (eMusic?s second only to iTunes, worldwide). eMusic features artists in every genre, from Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, and Miles Davis to Bob Marley, Black Flag, and Lucinda Williams. eMusic is the only major digital music service to deliver music in the universally compatible MP3 format that offers consumers the flexibility to transfer music to any PC, portable music player or mobile phone expansion memory card.

?One of the best methods to enjoy snackable content on a digital device is listening to music. Kingston created this introductory promotion with eMusic to give users the opportunity to sample up to 50 free downloads and see how easy it is to use a Flash memory card, listen to music on one?s mobile phone and then enjoy it again on an MP3 player or computer,? said Wendy Lecot, Flash memory marketing manager, Kingston.

Posted by | Wed, Nov 29, 2006 - 06:39 AM

Futuremark releases patches for 3DMark and PCMark, enables Vista benchmarking

Futuremark has released a series of patches for 3DMark and PCMark that enables benchmarking on Windows Vista. The patches are for 3DMark06, 3DMark05 and PCMark05 so if you own one then you need to grab the update. Be sure to post your benchmark results from Vista RC2 on the forums if you run it!

The Advanced & Professional Editions will continue to show the results offline, but the latest builds of the supported Futuremark benchmarks introduce a new feature for all Basic Edition (Free) users - the score is viewable online only. This new feature will enable new users to get an online analysis of their system, and to quickly & easily compare their results to others. The new online service called "Result Analyzer" is one of the key elements of the next generation of benchmarks from Futuremark.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Wed, Nov 29, 2006 - 06:37 AM

Lenovo Offers 15.4-Inch Screen for ThinkPad Notebook

Lenovo's ThinkPad T60 model is getting a wide-screen update. The Raleigh, N.C., company announced Nov. 28 that it would begin to offer a 5.1-pound, ThinkPad T60 notebook with a 15.4-inch display. The T60 ThinkPad model had previously come with a 14-inch and 15-inch screen.

By offering a bigger screen, Lenovo is continuing to make its ThinkPad series, which still carries the IBM logo, an appealing choice to the notebook's traditional customer base of business users. The notebook, which will be sold through the company's Web site and through its channel partners, is available as of Nov. 28, said Rajat Aggarwal, product manager for the ThinkPad T series. Companies such as Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and others have been offering more and more notebooks with 14- and 15-inch displays since 2005 as way to appeal to business users.

Eweek.com

Posted by | Tue, Nov 28, 2006 - 06:37 AM

Online video 'erodes TV viewing'

he online video boom is starting to eat into TV viewing time, an ICM survey of 2,070 people for the BBC suggests. Some 43% of Britons who watch video from the internet or on a mobile device at least once a week said they watched less normal TV as a result.

The success of sites such as YouTube over the past year has helped open the door for those who want easy ways to find, watch and share videos over the internet. The UK is not yet as advanced as the US, where hit TV shows are routinely available from networks' websites and services like iTunes.

BBC Technology News

Posted by | Tue, Nov 28, 2006 - 06:35 AM

Patent ruling threatens MS Office

Microsoft may have to pull its Office suite from the shelves in South Korea as a result of losing a patent lawsuit in that country, according to published reports.

Several news outlets reported Monday that a South Korean Supreme Court ruling on Friday refused a request from Microsoft that patents obtained by Hankuk Aviation University professor Lee Keung-Haie in 1997 be nullified. The decision strengthens the case of Lee and the company acting as his agent, called P and IB, which filed for damages against Microsoft in 2000 for infringing on Lee's patents, according to a report by the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

InfoWorld

Posted by | Tue, Nov 28, 2006 - 06:32 AM

Zimbabwe army says cellphones danger to security

Zimbabwe's military has said the country's mobile phone operators are threatening national security by using independent connections to the outside world, official media reported on Tuesday.

"The mobile service providers have their own international gateway system, and from a security point of view, this is dangerous to the state because we need to monitor traffic coming in and outside, but at the moment we can not," the Zimbabwe Defense Forces director for communications, Colonel Livingstone Chineka, was quoted by the Herald newspaper as saying. Chineka said the three mobile phone firms should route international calls through the state-owned fixed line operator TelOne, and not use their own gateways, in order to make it easier to monitor international traffic.

Reuters Technology News

Posted by | Tue, Nov 28, 2006 - 06:31 AM

Asustek denies planning to acquire MSI, says paper

Asustek Computer yesterday denied rumors that it was planning to acquire Micro-Star International (MSI), according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN). Merger rumors of all sorts have spread in Taiwan's markets since news broke that The Carlyle Group proposed an acquisition of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE).

The paper cited Asustek sources as saying it would be "absolutely impossible" for the company to acquire MSI. Asustek and Gigabyte Technology have recently teamed up for a joint venture. The new company, Gigabyte United, is expected to start operations in January.

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Tue, Nov 28, 2006 - 06:30 AM

YouTube coming soon to cell phones

YouTube is coming to mobile phones--or, to be more precise, a small slice of YouTube is coming to some Verizon Wireless phones. While its explosively popular Web site is free, YouTube's phone-based version will require a $15-a-month subscription to a Verizon Wireless service called VCast.

Verizon Wireless and YouTube said the service would be available early next month. The companies would not discuss the financial terms of their deal but said Verizon would have the exclusive rights to distribute YouTube videos on mobile phones "for a limited period of time." "This marquee partnership is the first of many," said Kelly Liang, senior director of business development for YouTube.

CNET News

Posted by | Tue, Nov 28, 2006 - 06:28 AM

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